The DeCandido novels

[delage]

Are the novels based on the movies any good? I'm tempted to buy them but I've seen so many mixed reviews. Would you rate them better than the S.D. Perry novels?

[Darkmoon]

Well, they're based on the movies. If you don't like the movies then they're not gonna be that magnificent. That being said, the authour works, hard, to make the books interesting and readible. There's only so much you can polish the movies but he truly does his best, adding in a large additional part to the start of the first book better explaining Alice's exact position and motivation. He also adds some interesting stuff to extinction regarding Jill and the little girl. With Apocolypse...well, honestly, I think he gave up. It starts with the ending of the first book and pretty much follows the movie point for point. I think there might be a couple of additional Jill and Carlos scenes, but it's not nearly as dramatic as the other two. He also ignores the stuff about the missing water and plant life at the start of Extinction. Some ideas are too stupid to write down.

All in all, they are better than the movies, but the fact the poor guy was working with the movies means they're never gonna set the world on fire.

[Ray]

I read his adaption of Apocalypse (read a bit of Extinction, haven't read Genesis yet). It's actually really good, very detailed, and the style of writing (at times) was even borderline poetic. His writing actually makes the story tolerable (Alice seems a bit toned down in the books). I really, really hope he writes the novel for Afterlife.

[Bianca]

I may be in the minority here, but I found his novels to be atrocious. I read Genesis and Apocalypse back in the day, and I kept thinking to myself, "This guy is trying to write like S.D. Perry, only it's ten times worse." I still feel that way. He imitates Perry far too much, but the language is watered down without any detail whatsoever. I'm not a fan of Perry's novels, either, but I found them to be tolerable.

Darkmoon makes some good points, though. The author adds information not present in the movies, but other than that...? One pitfall after another. I wish I still had them at hand so I could give specific examples, but I sold them a few years ago.

[delage]

Thanks for the replies. I think I may buy the first novel as the first movie was the only one I liked. If I like it I may eventually buy the other two. thanks again!

By the way if you live in Spain, the Genesis novel was published in Spanish this past March. And the Perry novels have been collected in two omnibus books compiling all 7 books.

[Guest]

By the way if you live in Spain, the Genesis novel was published in Spanish this past March. And the Perry novels have been collected in two omnibus books compiling all 7 books.

I think the Genesis novel is a bit expensive (16€). Timun Mas is abusing us with these prices.

You can buy them (3) more cheap in English.

[delage]

Yeah I just checked and its quite expensive! And the collected Perry novels cost 34€ each!